Marx Can Wait
November 11, 2022
Nearly 50 years after the death of his twin brother at the age of 29, Marco Bellocchio gathers his family to reconstruct Camillo’s disappearance. Through intimate conversations with his siblings, archival footage providing context about 20th-century Italian leftist politics, and occasional clips from his films, Marco attempts to manifest a ghost he has been dealing with his entire life.
In his most achingly personal film to date, legendary Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio uses the occasion of a family reunion in his hometown of Piacenza to excavate and discuss a traumatic event: the death his twin brother Camillo, who committed suicide in the late ’60s at age 29. Through detailed conversations with his siblings, archival footage providing context about 20th-century Italian leftist politics, and occasional clips from his films, many of which were in some way imbued with this defining family tragedy, Bellocchio conducts a personal and historical exorcism. Reckoning with the push-pull the director has long felt between the twin poles of family and politics, Marx Can Wait is an attempt at reconciliation and understanding from a filmmaker in his eighties whose work has never shied away from the challenging or the provocative.
- Original Language Title: Marx può aspettare
- Director: Marco Bellocchio
- Country: Italy
- Year: 2021
- Running Time: 95 min.
- Producer: Simone Gattoni, Beppe Caschetto
- Screenplay: Marco Bellocchio
- Cinematographers: Michele Cherchi Palmieri, Paolo Ferrari
- Editors: Francesca Calvelli
- Music: Ezio Bosso
- Website: https://strandreleasing.com/films/marx-can-wait/
- Awards: Nastro d’Argento Awards 2022 (Film of the Year)
- Filmography: The Traitor (2019), Dormant Beauty (2012), Sorelle Mai (2010), Vincere (2009), Sorelle (2006), The Wedding Director (2006), Good Morning, Night (2003), My Mother's Smile (2002), Elena (2002), L'affresco (2000), The Nanny (1999), The Prince of Homburg (1996), The Butterfly's Dream (1994), The Conviction (1991), The Witches' Sabbath (1988), Devil in the Flesh (1986), Henry IV (1984), A Leap in the Dark (1980), In the Name of the Father (1971), Fists in the Pocket (1965)
- Language: Italian
- US Distributor: Strand Releasing
- International Sales: The Match Factory